A run to remember

An hour later, Sebring coach Princeton Harris still couldn't believe what had transpired. In fact, he couldn't wait to get home, cue up the DVD player and watch the game footage all over again, from first whistle to final horn.

The hard part will be recreating it.

Fourth-seeded Sebring erased a 16-point deficit and authored an unlikely fourth-quarter comeback, stunning No. 5 Winter Haven 66-63 on Monday night in the Class 5A-District 5 quarterfinals.

The Blue Streaks' reward: a third date with top-seeded Osceola. This time, however, the Blue Streaks are coming off arguably their best second half of the season.

"They realized they had 16 minutes of basketball left, and if they didn't play, they wouldn't have practice tomorrow," Harris said.

So for perhaps the first time all season, the Blue Streaks little resembled the quintessential .500 team their record seemed to indicate.

And their timing couldn't have been better.

Sebring (12-11) overcame a double-digit deficit in the final 5 minutes, reversing a free-throw disparity that threatened to cut short its postseason run on its home floor. Marcus Dewberry gave the Blue Streaks their first lead with 1:58 left in the fourth quarter, and the freshman guard and Devin Clarke, despite a uniform malfunction, combined to score 17 points - including the last eight - in the final period.

"We came out and fought hard," said Clarke, who scored a game-high 20 points. "We didn't want it to be our last game."

Sure seemed like it would be in the first half, when Winter Haven built a 16-point lead after burying a few 3-pointers, dominating the paint and forcing Sebring to run a makeshift offensive set on virtually every possession. The Blue Streaks did well to trail 32-25 at halftime, after making just 6 of 15 free-throw attempts.

Two minutes into the second half, Winter Haven had pushed its lead back to 14. Harris looked nervously down the bench before debating with LaVaar Scott, his assistant coach: Continue to sit back and rely on a porous defense, or, for one of the few times this season, engulf the Blue Devils in a full-court press?

Harris chose the latter, and it worked perfectly.

Winter Haven almost immediately began to turn the ball over, leading to easy baskets in transition for Sebring, which was able to cut that third-quarter deficit in half.

"We just had to believe in ourselves, that we could achieve anything," Harris said. "Believe, believe, believe, believe. And we did what we were supposed to do."

Winter Haven, staked to a 52-41 lead, entered the fourth quarter already in the bonus, meaning every Sebring foul - a bump, a hold, a block, whatever - resulted in a trip to the free-throw line. That turned out to be a favorable scenario. The Blue Devils couldn't make a free throw with any consistency.

They missed 13 of 22 in the second half, allowing Sebring to steadily crawl back into the game. It drew even closer when Joe Young, guarding the baseline, snared the incoming inbounds pass and dribbled hard to the basket, laying it up and drawing the foul.

"That was a game-changer," Harris said. "He really played like he didn't want to go home."

Moments later, Dewberry swooped into the lane and made a mid-range jumper, giving Sebring its first lead of the game, 62-61, with 1:58 left. Winter Haven promptly turned the ball over, couldn't handle a steal attempt and missed two more free throws.

In a strange twist, play was halted and Clarke was removed from the game with 46 seconds left after a referee noticed blood on his jersey - the result of a fourth-quarter dive across the scorer's table, during which he broke off a side panel. On the sideline, he switched into teammate Adarius Hollinger's No. 3 jersey, then Deon Hall's No. 13, while Sebring athletic director Terry Quarles worked feverishly to remove the blemish from the uniform. (The act of a player removing his jersey in the bench area should have drawn a technical foul. It wasn't called, however.)

Meanwhile, the Blue Streaks padded their lead with 22 seconds left after two free throws by Dewberry, who finished with 13 points, including eight in the final period. Clarke, wearing the new uniform, sank a free throw with 7.8 seconds left, giving Sebring a 65-62 lead.

Winter Haven's Claudeson Pierre-Louis then made one of two free throws on the other end to make it a two-point game. After Dewberry was quickly fouled and made one of two, putting Sebring up 66-63 with 4.8 seconds left, the Blue Devils were called for a violation, touching off a raucous celebration on the sideline.

"I can't wait to see this film," Harris said, "because this is good. Even though we did get down in the dumps, they fought. I haven't seen that in a while but it was the right time.

"Afterward, I said, 'Guys no offense, and I know we won our tournament and have played some good games, but that fourth quarter was the best basketball we've played all year.' If we play that type of basketball for four quarters, no lapses, this team is gonna be hard to beat."

Of course, therein lies the problem. Sebring has largely been unable to sustain that type of up-tempo, crisp, clean basketball over a full 32 minutes. Fault inexperience for those lapses, the coach says, or Harris' hands-off approach when his team begins to lose control.

Still, the Blue Streaks are bracing for a third encounter with Osceola, after losing twice to the Kowboys in the regular season - a two-point loss at home (Sebring turned the ball over five times in the final few minutes), and a 21-point defeat in Kissimmee (when forward Tevin Toney missed the game because of a football recruiting trip).

"They are the ones that should be worried," Harris said. "They're the ones with this great record. We've got a .500 record. We don't have anything to lose, and I'm going to use that for motivation for our team, because we're capable of doing this."